Articles
Growing to Love Jesus
In last Sunday morning’s sermon, we looked at the difficult and piercing question that Jesus asked of Peter (John 21:15-17)—did he love Jesus? The question wasn’t only for Peter, though. “If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed” (I Cor. 16:22). However, what are we to do if we don’t love Jesus? Is a visitor to church expected to automatically love Jesus? What about unbelievers in the world?
Loving Jesus is not how our relationship with Him begins. That is where it grows to. It was Andrew who first brought Peter to Jesus (John 1:40-41). Imagine if that first introduction was the moment that Jesus asked if Peter loved Him. Would Peter have been so quick to say yes? Would that be a reasonable thing to expect of Peter? No. Instead, it is after Peter has spent years observing and following Jesus that he is asked if he loves Him. In the same way, we don’t start with a natural love for Jesus. We learn it. We grow in it.
Many people become Christians, not because they love Jesus, but because they fear judgment / hell. We may not start in a place of love, but we do need to grow into it. But how?
We grow in love by growing in faith. John tells us that we love because God first loved us (I John 4:19). However, God’s actions of love will have no impact on our hearts unless we first hear and then believe in them. John testified (I John 4:14) then we came to know and believe (I John 4:16). Hearing leads to faith and faith leads to love. If you don’t love Jesus, spend more time reading about Him, because…
We grow in love by coming to know Jesus better. The more we understand His compassion (Mt. 9:36) and the more we see how He helped those around Him (Mt. 9:35) the easier it is to relate to Him and appreciate Him. On the other hand, if we don’t really know anything about Jesus, how can we say that we love Him? Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the “exact representation of His nature” (Heb. 1:3) which means that we are meant to understand who Jesus is and how He behaved. To see Jesus is to see God (John 14:9). May we be like the Greeks who came to Philip and asked, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). They wanted to physically lay eyes on Him, but we seek to know His nature, His teaching, His heart, His everything. In so doing, we will find that He is worthy of all our love and adoration.
We grow in love by making the choice to do so. Biblical love (agape) is not devoid of emotion, but it is much more than a feeling. It is about self-sacrifice and service. It is wonderful for husbands to have emotional feelings for their wives, but we don’t control our feelings. They come and go. Some days are good and some days are bad. But husbands are commanded to love their wives (Col. 3:19). If it is commanded, then it is a choice. They are to nourish and cherish their wives in love (Eph. 5:28-29). Men can do that without “feeling it”. In fact, they need to take care of their wives regardless of how they feel.
In the same way, we are commanded to love Jesus and God (Mk. 12:28-30; I Cor. 16:22). It is up to us to make that happen. We must choose to sacrifice our selves and to live for Jesus. “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (II Cor. 5:15).
We may not start off with love, but we can grow in it. Focus on building your faith and learning about who Jesus is. However, in the end, the question of whether we love Jesus is not a question of how we feel but of what we have decided to do with our lives. Have we dedicated ourselves to serving Him and living for Him?
Do you love Jesus?
